“TREED” an exhibition of Paintings by artist Jill Price showing at Bliss Studio

An extension of the rural transition exhibition shown at the Art Exchange in January 2011, Treed is a new series of landscapes by Jill Price that combine anthropomorphism and story telling. Always a people watcher, Price’s observations of human characteristics and behaviour of trees began while driving back and forth on the rural highways that lead to family and friends. The work reiterates her ongoing concern for our environment and her need to reconnect with the land that sustains us. Visually the illustrative paintings work to depict how our personal experiences shape or form the perspective in which we see or interact with our surroundings.

“I believe this is one of the most important and appropriate exhibitions we have shown here.”

Jill Price is a contemporary mixed media artist living and working in the Toronto area. Her cultural landscapes work to explore environmental issues and integrate storytelling as a way of documenting society today and in the past.
Biography
Jill Price grew up as an athlete in Pickering, Ontario and then moved to London where she graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Here she received instruction and mentoring from many nationally recognized artists such as Duncan De Kergommeaux, Sheila Butler, Wyn Geleynse, Colette Urban, Kim Moodie, Barbara Fischer and Helmut Becker.

Upon meeting her mother's birth mother; a painter residing near Syracuse, New York, she relinquished her arts administrative roles to become more focused on her own work, and so in 1992, along with Beth Stewart, opened up a co-op gallery in the Covent Garden Market called Axis Studios, which facilitated her own creative production as well as assisted other emerging London artists to sell and showcase their work.

After years of working as an arts administrator, arts writer, curator, and part-time artist, she enrolled at Althouse College where she attained her Junior/Intermediate teaching certificate and eventually completed her senior and specialist qualifications as a Visual Arts educator. After working in the private school system for 3 years, Jill moved to the GTA due to her husband's role with the Canadian Military and has begun to work at her body of work full-time.